2001 film by Saravana Subbiah
Citizen is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film written and directed by Saravana Subbiah and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film stars Ajith Kumar in dual roles with Meena, Vasundhara Das and Nagma playing supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Deva, and cinematography was handled by Ravi K. Chandran. The film was released theatrically on 9 June 2001 and became a super hit at the box-office.
Plot
Abdullah runs a motorcycle workshop with a few workers. He also gives casual legal advice to the locals. A computer science student named Indhu develops a crush on him and tries to woo him, although Abdullah has nothing of it.
In a massive street protest by lawyers across the city, Abdullah, in an altered appearance, kidnaps Judge Vedhachalam after introducing himself as 'Citizen'. Later on, Abdullah kidnaps Collector Santhanam by posing as freedom fighter Sundaramoorthy. On both occasions, Abdullah mentions 'Attipatti', which left his victims speechless.
With these two high-profile kidnappings, the CBI, which Senior Officer Sarojini Harichandran leads, handles the case. Sarojini finds out that both kidnap victims worked together in the Mayavaram division some years ago and were involved in a riot in Attipatti. However, a check with the Mayiladuthurai sub-collector's office and the Nagapattinam collector's office found no town or village named Attipatti existed. She visits the collector's office in Thanjavur and is shocked to discover that the hamlet, Attipatti existed in records before 1973 but not in the years after. She becomes convinced that the kidnapper has a link to Attipatti.
Meanwhile, Abdullah becomes irritated with Indhu, who longs for his affection. He scolds her and says she doesn't know who he is or the pain he endures in his heart.
The CBI team tracks down a former employee of the local government, which Attipatti was under, and visits Father Louis at Lutheran Chapel. At the chapel, Sarojini and her team meet Father Kuriakose, who informs them that Father Louis passed away ten years ago but left a box to hand over to whoever comes to the church and asks about Attipatti. Sarojini and her team find hundreds of dead bodies buried near the coastal area where the location of Attipatti was, and a tombstone bearing the names of all who perished. Sarojini concludes that Arivanandam and Anthony, the name of a boy baptised after the atrocity, are the same people, and her further investigation leads her to Abdullah, who manages to escape via a secret route. Sarojini discovers Citizen's operation room within the mosque. There she finds out Citizen's next target is DGP Devasagayam. However, simultaneously, Citizen already kidnapped the DGP. The CBI officers receive information that Citizen is hiding in Tada Forest and go after him. Indhu comes to meet Abdullah and reveals she already knew he was Citizen some time ago. The CBI officers arrive at the forest and, after a chase, finally arrest Citizen. In the trial, Citizen narrates what happened in his village, Attipatti.
Past: In 1973, it was a hamlet of 700 inhabitants surrounded by the sea. Therefore, it is often flooded by rising sea levels, causing deaths. The hamlet's MLA had promised to build a wall in exchange for votes but never constructed it. When the villagers, led by Citizen's father, Subramani, go to the collector's office to ask about its status, the collector sends them away, saying they cannot build a wall in that area as the number of people is too small. The villagers later found out that the district collector, the MLA, the DGP, and the judge had taken 150 million rupees allocated by the government to build the wall. After that, when the four visited Attipatti, the outraged villagers embarrassed them by forcing them to eat mouldy rice and pouring water over them. In response, the four officials vowed to make Attipatti disappear from the map. One night, they arrived at Attipatti with henchmen, caught all the villagers, tied them on a boat, tortured them, and pushed them to the sea, killing all except Arivanandam.
Present: At the trial, Citizen explains he did not kidnap the MLA because he got punished after losing the election. With the judge, DGP, and district collector on the witness stand, Citizen tells the court that the death penalty or life imprisonment is lenient for them. He says corruption exists because government officers want to provide a luxurious life for their family members. Arivanandam suggests stripping the wealth and citizenship of the three and all their immediate and extended family members. The film ends with the court releasing Citizen because he fought for the good of the country.
Production
Early indications suggested that the film directed by Saravana Subbiah was a remake of the 1973 English film The Day of the Jackal, but it proved to be untrue.[1] Ajith Kumar put on weight for the film, which would feature him in nine roles, and he claimed that he was inspired by Kamal Haasan's award-winning performances.[2] Jyothika was originally a part of the cast but opted out due to conflicting commitments.[3][4][5] Subsequently, singer Vasundhara Das, who had earlier appeared in Hey Ram, was chosen to play the leading lady, while Nagma was selected to essay the role of a police officer.[6] A special feature on the making of the film was broadcast by Sun TV in May 2001.[7] Dubbing for Nagma was provided by actress Anuradha.[8] Gemini Ganesan was also initially meant to play a role in the film, but his character was later altered in the script and replaced by Pandiyan.[9]
After 2 months of pre-production, shooting started on 28 December 2000 with Ajith and Vasundhara Das, after the former completed the shooting for his previous action thriller film Dheena, which was also released in 2001 during the Thai Pongal festival, with Ravi K. Chandran as cinematographer who had replaced P. C. Sriram in the project.[10][11] The location for the Athipatty scenes was an island situated on the outskirts of Chennai, and it took three hours for the team to travel from the city and then by boat to get there.[12][13] A scene filmed at Rajaji Hall featured five thousand of Ajith's fans as extras.[6] A song in the film was shot in Australia in March 2001, delaying the proposed release date of 1 May.[14]
Release
Upon release Citizen received positive reviews from critics and was successful and completed 150-day run at the box office, justifying a relatively large budget of ₹8 crore. The review from The Hindu labelled it as a "definite milestone in Ajit's acting career".[15] Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote Ajith's dream of trying out makeup techniques has come true but the director's celluloid dream is not valid due to weak screenplay and tense direction.[16] The film was commercial success.[17]
The film was later dubbed and released as Citizen in Telugu, to positive reviews.[18] The actor and director began to work on another project titled Itihasam, written by Sujatha and focusing on caste issues, but the production was shelved.[19]
